Rhodes Pastoral’s inaugural Boree Park field day celebrates a positive investment in the red meat industry

The inaugural Boree Park White Suffolk field day presented hot topics on genetics, electronic tags and biosecurity at the Dinninup-based stud where industry experts laid the groundwork for the future direction of the sheep industry. Boree Park stud was founded in 2017 to breed rams for its parent company, Rhodes Pastoral, that runs a 15,000 self-replacing Merino flock with an additional 9000 Merino ewes joined to White Suffolk rams. Rhodes Pastoral farm manager Michael Wright and his team run a sprawling mixed sheep, cattle and cropping enterprise on 15,500ha across the shires of Boyup Brook, Arthur River and Kojonup. The opportunity to increase this family business empire, founded by Donovon Francis Duncan Rhodes in the 1950s, with further investment in the red meat industry was realised last year when Rhodes Pastoral bought the Ida Vale White Suffolk stud consisting of 400 stud ewes, plus ewe lambs. This introduction to a seedstock business brought about the inaugural Boree Park field day on July 25 in preparation for the stud’s first on-property ram sale to be held on October 10. Mr Wright welcomed a big crowd of more than 90 visitors at the event to hear from leading sheep industry experts. He said despite all the negativity in the industry at the moment, Rhodes Pastoral, was optimistic with its recent investment in the red meat industry. “If they (Labor Government) end live sheep exports, it’s best we just move on and change our business strategies to get on with it,” he said. The field day speakers included Lambplan development officer Peta Bradley, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development project officer Andrew Longbottom and Shearwell Data Livestock Systems WA industry liaison manager Brad McCormick. Ms Bradley said producers who bought rams that came with breeding values, were “taking the guess work out” of any particular ram’s accurate performance potential. She said accurate Lambplan data was derived mostly from seedstock producers who submitted data on their stud flock. “It’s up to commercial ram buyers to put pressure on their ram supplier to do a good job of reporting their data for accuracy,” she said. “I suggest ram buyers prepare in advance when securing the best rams to suit their breeding objectives, firstly by selecting from an appropriate index before looking at the individual traits followed by a visual inspection of the ram. “Future eating quality traits of importance should not be ignored as they are expected to help increase financial returns in six years time or so.” Mr Longbottom said mandatory electronic sheep tags in WA would come into effect on January 2025 with five recommendations from the SAFEMEAT Advisory Group. These included eID tags for all species to allow one database with improved governance structure that would provide shared and ongoing funding support. “This will include a full assessment of implementation,” Mr Longbottom said. “DPIRD will advise producers of what infrastructure will be required, plus provide technical staff support and tagging assistance.” Mr Longbottom also informed the crowd on being vigilant on biosecurity at the farm gate. He strongly urged livestock producers to monitor movement on-farm whether it be vehicles, people or stock. Mr McCormick said eID tags were imperative for biosecurity and traceability. “Boree Park are using eID tags that offer both efficiency in management and opportunity,” he said. “The benefits outweigh the costs from a data management perspective. “The key to eID is collecting data and putting that useful information to work in the farm management.” The field day provided many producers the opportunity to inspect a selection of Boree Park rams and ewes. Boree Park stud manager Michael Potter said he was excited about the upcoming sale. “We are considering the opportunity to exhibit animals at the Perth Royal Show and offer a top 2022 ram for sale at the All-Breeds Ram Sale, but more importantly, we look forward to offering 150 top of the drop White Suffolk rams at our on-property sale on October 10,” he said.